Teachable Moments: Biggest art heist in U.S. history remains unsolved

Boston's Gardner museum heist largest in American history

8:01 PM,
Mar. 17, 2013

'The Concert' by Johannes Vermeer.

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Very early on March 18, 1990, two men dressed as Boston police officers entered the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, subdued the guards and left 81 minutes later with 13 works of art valued at around $500 million. They are still missing, and the museum still hangs empty frames where four of the most important works hung.

"They hang there as testament to our belief that we'll get them back someday," said Anthony Amore, head of the museum's security, in a 2012 interview. "They're placeholders, not memorials."

The museum offered a reward of $5 million for information that would help recover the ...